.WRITERS.ON.WRITING..Writers.on.Writing.
Get to know our authors, the foundation and heart of Yellow Arrow Journal, and what writing means to them through our monthly series.
W.o.W. #69
Milan Harris
What period of your life do you find you write about most often?
I’m very interested in writing about the present. I often turn to my current situations, experiences, and interests to inform my writing. If it’s not about the present, it’s certainly about childhood. More than periods of life, I turn to a lot of similar themes, but they can also be molded by the situational and environmental contexts I exist in. I find myself writing a lot about death, grief, and liberation, but also about love and connection—I think all of those themes are constantly interacting with each other, and I’m constantly interacting with them.
What word do you find yourself using most often in your writing?
Oddly enough, I use a lot of words relating to the body like flesh, blood, and bone. Much of my writing tends to be visceral and imagery—heavy, and I usually connect the body and the physical realm to the ideas I write about.
Why did you submit “we been been immortal” to Yellow Arrow Journal? Why this piece at this time to this place?
I write a lot about grief because grief has followed me in many ways, for many years. In 2024, grief has been especially present, as over 200,000 Palestinians have been killed. For me, grieving death is both personal and communal, individualized and politicized. A lot of my writing recently has helped me to process the grief I’ve felt for loved ones passing, but, it’s also helped me to grieve communally—“we been been immortal” is a direct response to seeing the deaths of so many Black people in Baltimore and the world. Though I had a specific context of why I wrote this poem over a year and a half ago, I think it can connect to oppressed people all over the world. I think it says that we can grieve in the ways most authentic to us, love intimately and uniquely, and we will still be here. We will always be here, immortal, transcendent, and eternal.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
Mostly to get off my butt and stop procrastinating.
Formerly the director of an after-school program, Milan Harris now works as a researcher inequity-based education practices in Maryland. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, she has always been a lover of literature. She’s written for various online journals, but in 2020 she cofounded her own creative arts magazine, Amani Sol, with her best friend. They’re currently working on their third issue. When not writing, she can be found gardening, cooking, or doing yoga.
Yellow Arrow published Milan’s piece “we been been immortal” in Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. IX, No. 2, kitalo. You can also find her on Instagram @milanrougee_ and at her magazine’s website amanisolmag.com.
.Writers.on.Writing.
Get to know our authors, the foundation and heart of Yellow Arrow Journal, and what writing means to them through our monthly series.
W.o.W. #68
Elyse Welles
What is the first book that made you cry?
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. I remember my teacher reading it aloud in elementary school and sobbing away at the unending love, the unconditional gifts the tree gave year after year . . . and it was the unappreciativeness of the boy-turned-man that made me cry. I remember looking around at the classmates I had and thinking, “Why isn’t everyone else sobbing?!”
How did you first publish your writing and what was it?
My very first published work as a working writer was an essay in Aayo Magazine about finding calm amidst political turmoil, something I come back to again and again in recent months. Fun fact, when I was in the 11th grade I had my Lembas bread recipe (Elvish bread from Lord of the Rings) published in a local cookbook in Bahrain where I was living at the time!
What word do you find yourself using most often in your writing?
Warmth.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
I am guided: just stay focused.
Elyse Welles is a multicultural author and sacred poet. An initiated priestess holding an MA with a focus in spiritual studies, she is a teacher of the lost Earth priestess arts of the Mediterranean where she hails from. She hosts the Magick Kitchen Podcast, a top 20 show in the U.S., as well as the Seeking Numina Podcast and the Cosmic Theater Mystery School Podcast. She is an author, featured in several anthologies. Her first book, Sacred Wild: An Invitation to Connect with Spirits of the Land, releases with Llewellyn in fall 2025, and her paranormal mystery novel, What the Water Remembers, releases in September 2025. Elyse is currently writing her third book, a nonfiction work diving deeper into intentional, spiritual connection with nature. It builds on the themes introduced in Sacred Wild.
She writes regularly for Witchology and Witch Way Magazine and is the Greece correspondent for Wild Hunt. She has spoken at several conferences including Hekatefest and the Ancestral Magic Summit. She runs Seeking Numina, facilitating pilgrimages at Greece’s sacred sites, and teaches earth-based spirituality. Learn more about it at seekingnumina.com or find Elyse on Instagram @seekingnumina.
Yellow Arrow published her poems “Bougainvillea Bright” in Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. VII, No. 1, UpSpring and “Zeitgeist” in Yellow Arrow Vignette SPARK.
.Writers.on.Writing.
Get to know our authors, the foundation and heart of Yellow Arrow Journal, and what writing means to them through our monthly series.
W.o.W. #67
Sara streeter
Why did you submit this piece to Yellow Arrow Journal? Why this piece at this time to this place?
(This is a GREAT question!) I’ve been impressed with so much of what Yellow Arrow does and publishes, and I wanted to be a part of the community. When I learned about the theme of this issue, kitalo, I knew I had to submit. This story has been in-process for years and the [submissions] call was a push for me to finally get it right. I also live in Silver Spring, which is not far from Baltimore!
What is the first book that made you cry or laugh out loud?
I found a first edition of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” when I was young and read it cover to cover. Francie felt like a friend to me.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Observe everything. Don’t skim over details.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
It tells me I’m a badass. And that I have something important to share with the world.
Sara Streeter, or 한혜숙 Hea Sook Han (she/her), is a transracially adopted Korean-American, interior designer, biological mother of two, and writer. Since starting her writing journey in 2021, she has been published in Longleaf Review, Hippocampus Magazine, Peatsmoke Journal, and other fantastic places. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and Best Micro Fiction. Visit her at sarajstreeter.com.
Yellow Arrow published Sara’s piece “Bitter / Sweet” in Yellow Arrow Journal Vol. IX, No. 2, kitalo. You can also find her on Instagram @_streetstreet_ .
.Writers.on.Writing.
Get to know our authors, the foundation and heart of Yellow Arrow Journal, and what writing means to them through our monthly series.
W.o.W. #66
Rebecca D. Martin
Describe an early experience where you learned that language has power.
I was an early reader and can’t remember a time I wasn’t enamored with books. My mother would take my little brother and me to the public library, and I remember pulling books from the shelves, opening them, and—magic after magic—being transported. Feeling transported. I think that’s one of the first and earliest realizations of language’s power: the power to instantly take the reader elsewhere, while at the same time deepening and enriching very real feelings.
What is a book you wish someone would write? That you want to write (or are writing)?
I want more bookish fantasy with strong heroines. More and more of it—and I want the characters to have disabilities. So I am, indeed, currently writing a book like that. Myth, wheelchairs, and books with powers.
Why did you submit this piece to Yellow Arrow Journal? Why this piece at this time to this place?
I wrote [“Girl on the Edge”] over a year ago, one year into learning that I am autistic. The photo and event I write about, that particular time in my tender, teenage life, keeps coming back to me. That young woman who was highly masked and afraid of what she was needs to be seen and held, because she is still present inside of me. Yellow Arrow Journal’s ELEVATE theme brought a final piece of understanding for me: though I didn’t understand why at the time, the songs of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers lifted me, kept me from sinking as low as I might have while I was in hiding from myself. Their song “Fugitive” is perfect.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
Get these thoughts on paper immediately so you don’t explode!
Rebecca D. Martin is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in the Curator, the Brevity blog, Isele, and Susurrus, among others. She is currently releasing her autism memoir in essays at rebeccadmartin.substack.com, where she also talks about nature, books, poetry, and teaching. She lives in central Virginia with her husband and daughters.
Yellow Arrow published Rebecca’s piece “Girl on the Edge” in ELEVATE, Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. IX, No. 1. You can also find her on Instagram @mrsmartinreadsbooks and Facebook @rebawrit.
.Writers.on.Writing.
Get to know our authors, the foundation and heart of Yellow Arrow Journal, and what writing means to them through our monthly series.
W.o.W. #65
Samantha Liana Williams
How did you first publish your writing and what was it?
The first thing I ever published was in my university’s literary journal. It was a poem titled “A Coming Home,” which was like an ode to my paternal grandmother that everyone compared me to as a child.
What period of your life do you find you write about most often?
My teenage years. I am beginning to write about my early 20s, but I became a mom young, so for me, the periods where I was my freest self I tend to write about.
What is a good writing habit you have picked up?
I journal. I think as a writer, it’s important to keep track of feelings and also crazy and different comparisons that can be brought into poems. I also have what I call “a word bank.” It’s like a document with all my favorite words based on how they sound to my inner ear that I tend to pull from. I also kind of write in phrases, like I’ll be thinking or watching something, or even listening to music, and something will make me write a line or a phrase in my head, so I’ll jot it down on paper. I have this document full of random thoughts that I tend to pull from. It’s like an archive.
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
To always be listening. That words and poetry are magic. That kids really do say the darndest things and if you listen closely and pay attention, kids are the best poets. They have a way with imaginative comparisons and throwing two things together that you wouldn’t think relate but somehow do.
Samantha Liana Williams is a writer and poet. Her work about two-ness and nostalgic reflections has been seen in BlackJoy Archive, Obsidian Literature, and Soft Quarterly. She is a poetry reader for Muzzle Magazine and a 2023 recipient of the John Lewis Writing Grant for poetry. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her eight-year-old daughter and newborn.
Yellow Arrow published Samantha’s piece “An Extenuation of Thanks” in ELEVATE, Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. IX, No. 1). You can also find her on Instagram @samanthaliana_.